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Under pressure: Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Heße (archive image)
Photo: Malte Ossowski / SVEN SIMON / imago images
Since the first major abuse scandals were uncovered in 2010, the Catholic Church in Germany has been confronted with the processing of such crimes - and their systematic cover-up.
Now the Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Heße is coming under pressure.
A note on the file suggests that he might be involved in covering up a suspected abuse case.
Two years ago the Catholic Church published the MHG study, which was controversial because of its methodology.
Accordingly, between 1946 and 2016, more than 3,600 mostly male minors were victims of sexual assault by priests and deacons.
The investigation by the German Bishops' Conference was considered an important step in the reappraisal - but did not name the perpetrators.
That should change in the case of the Archdiocese of Cologne.
Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki has Munich lawyers investigate how the Archdiocese deals with abuse cases.
The lawyers should also name the names of those who covered up sexual abuse or did not punish it consistently, as Woelki explicitly promised.
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The report should be presented to the press in March.
But shortly before the announced date, Woelki backed down: the "identifiable naming of the former responsible parties" had not been "finally clarified" in all of its legal aspects, it said.
Previously, so it is heard, some of these "leaders" had threatened countermeasures.
Half a year has now passed, but there is still no new date for the publication of the report.
Now the results are gradually trickling through unofficially.
And these bring Hße into trouble.
Priest allegedly abused girls
Heße, a native of Cologne, made a career in his home diocese.
He was head of personnel and vicar general there before moving to Hamburg as archbishop in 2015.
He comes under pressure in the case of a priest now 69 years old.
The priest is said to have sexually abused his underage nieces for years in the 1990s.
The Cologne public prosecutor has already brought charges against the clergyman.
"Everything is told"
The "Bild" newspaper reported that the Munich lawyers had come across an explosive note in their investigations.
According to this, Pastor U. "told everything in a conversation in the Vicariate General".
According to the memo, no minutes were deliberately made of this conversation, as it was feared that it could be confiscated.
Only handwritten notes should exist "which could be destroyed if necessary".
And: "Prelate Dr. Heße gives his consent to this procedure", according to "Bild" in the note from 2010. The Archdiocese of Hamburg has now confirmed the text.
In the room there is now the suspicion that Heße was involved in the cover-up of the abuse.
He told the German Press Agency about the note: "It was a phone call from my secretary. So it is not something that I have said, nor something that has been said to me, but something that has been written down for me has been presented and that raises some questions. "
He is interested in a full explanation.
The pastor, who is suspected of abuse, worked for the Archdiocese of Cologne for a long time after the allegations were first discovered.
From 2002 to 2016 he was hospital pastor in Wuppertal, from 2016 to 2019 parish vicar in the district dean of Euskirchen.
The archdiocese also contributed to his legal fees.
"In 2010, Heße would have been legally obliged to initiate a preliminary investigation and inform the Vatican," said the theologian and canon lawyer from Münster, Thomas Schüller, to SPIEGEL.
"If the allegations are confirmed, Heße is no longer tenable as Hamburg's archbishop."
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bhr / jpz / dpa